Showing posts with label ikea. Show all posts
Showing posts with label ikea. Show all posts

Monday, June 23, 2008

ikea-ed out


After many many trips to Ikea, our living/dining area is finally set up!  We had some furniture, but needed to get a futon (which will be important since we don't have a guest room) and an Expedit, the cube bookshelf that's serving as a room divider.  Putting these items together was loads of fun (sarcasm) but they are together now.  We also picked up a coffee table and countless other little doodads.  I love Ikea because it's so inexpensive, but after countless trips for returns, exchanges, and extra hardware, even I am glad for a break.


The dining room set is from Greg's aunt, and it fits just about perfectly.  We had to forego the hutch because of space reasons, but luckily, I have my magical floating hutch in the kitchen.


Here's a view of the living area from the stairs.  Eventually I'd like the TV to go in the basement, both because it looks goofy here and because I like to pretend that I'm too intellectual to waste time watching it (exactly the opposite of the truth), but that will have to wait until we gather the energy and budget for another huge project.

Overall, I'm quite pleased with how everything fits.  My big concern, based on a lot of the rowhomes we looked at pictures of when we were househunting, was that the space would feel really cluttered.  I think we've avoided that, and still managed to come up with enough places to sit, etc.

Wednesday, March 26, 2008

Blinds


While I've still barely thought about things like what kind of furniture I want to get, for some reason I have known since before we bought our house that I wanted these specific blinds. They seem very natural and simple, which really goes well with the look I'm going for.  Every time I've walked through Ikea in the last six months, I point them out to whoever I happen to be with.  The other night, that person was our friend Leah.  The only problem was that I couldn't point the blinds out to her because they weren't there.  I panicked.  The idea that they would go out of stock had never crossed my mind, and I planned to use these blinds in almost every room!  

I was hoping against hope that maybe this particular Ikea didn't keep them in stock, but that I'd surely be able to find them at my South Philly Ikea.  So Leah and I kept going, reliving our experience in a German Ikea this past summer.  During that trip, our husbands, who have two graduate degrees between them, got so lost and confused among the Flarkes and Basisks that they looked like scared little puppies when we found them.

As we were about to check out, Leah suddenly pointed to a big sign that said something like "LAST CHANCE."  Underneath the sign was a bin full of my blinds!  On sale!!  I loaded up my cart, brushing aside the fact that I hadn't measured any of the windows and actually have no idea if the blinds will work.  Thanks to Leah for helping me preserve my vision.  Perhaps there'll be a later post about the tragedy of the blinds that just don't work, but I'm hoping that's not the case.

Sunday, February 3, 2008

South Philly Freestanding Chick-Fil-A


At the end of a long day's work, it's nice to know that Chick-Fil-A is right down the street.  The  South Philly Chick-Fil-A is not just any Chick-Fil-A, however.  It has something I haven't seen at any other Chick-Fil-A I've been to.


That's right, Texas Pete hot sauce.  It is the perfect complement to the original Chick-Fil-A chicken sandwich.  Why is South Philly so special?  Why don't all Chick-Fil-A's offer this delicious condiment?  I don't know, but I'm glad I live by this one.


And even more exciting, the view across the parking lot.